How fast would a high-speed rail train network have to be to make it a success in the Midwest region?

Dunno. Minimum I would say is what Europeans term high speed, which is 225 km/h (or for us backwards Americans, would be about 140 mph.)

Although in Spain they are constructing high speed that would go over 200 mph, so if we could get that speed, that would really entice people away from their cars.

I don't think it's a matter of speed. It's a matter of price and reliability. The price must be low enough to offset the lower speed relative to aircraft. Reliability is needed because people need to know that they'll arrive on time. Amtrak has recieved a lot of flak lately for being consistantly late. That won't do.

If there were a reliable high-speed train network throughout the midwest, things across the whole region would begin to look very appealing.
Being able to get from city to city very quickly without a car is something that would make the midwest very competitive as a region.

But I agree, it MUST be reliable, and simply won't work if it costs are too high.
People have got to be able to ride it without groaning. I know that trips around the country for me are always by car because I simply can't afford to fly.
If the train is too much more than it would cost to drive, then most are just going to take the extra time and save their money.

Is there a demand for it? I know Milwaukee-Chicago, Chicago-St. Louis are well traveled routes but are they traveled enough that they need 140 mph+ rail? The possibility of it between MKE and CHI has always been intreting though.

I know they're thinking of extending the chicago metro rail all the way to milwaukee and although a high speed rail throughout the midwest would be nice, you have to wonder if theres enough of a need for it, and if there is a need, whether people would adapt to using it regularly enough so that it would 'pay for itself'

Those are all very good questions. The thing with Europe is that I don't think a lot of the inter-city fares by the high speed trains are all that much cheeper then the airfares to that city. I think many people in Europe use them to bypass the hastle of the airports, the centrality of the stations, and the comfort of the service.

If you could get speed up to 200 mph though you are effectivley cutting down the time to half what it would be for flights. And if you take into account the hastle of airports then high speed rail would be faster on many routes.

Another thing working in Europes favor that we have to struggle with is that people don't need a car to visit where they want once they get to their destination in Europe. If you are in Detroit, Milwaukee, St.Louis and even in some cases in Chicago if you want to go visit many places a car is a luxary that at times you need. We would also have to improve some of the public transport in all the major cities to be served to some degree if it were to work I think.


Also the threat of terrorism is much more real on high speed rail I beleive which is unfortunate. To be frank it is a lot easier to blow up some railway tracks and derail a train then it is to blow up a plain 35,000 feet up in the sky from the ground.

That said I hope we wil see high speed rail one day.

If we had 140-200 mph trains...people in Milwaukee could easily work in downtown Chicago and vice versa. There are many people in Kenosha and Racine who work in Chicagoland too. It probally be the most ideal place to have high speed rail in the Midwest. The Amtrak Hiawatha Line is what, the 2-3rd most used Amtrak line in the nation?

Here is a map

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/1259/train06g1cr.gif (http://imageshack.us)

What about that extention of the Metra from Kenosha to Milwaukee, is that cancel now?

If not, then Metra would help tieing Chicago and Milwaukee together.

Milwaukee-Chicago high speed travel line is a must.

What about that extention of the Metra from Kenosha to Milwaukee, is that cancel now?

If not, then Metra would help tieing Chicago and Milwaukee together.

Milwaukee-Chicago high speed travel line is a must.

Nope. They got some 80 million from the government for the project. It looks like it will be built. 2009 is the estimate.

Those are all very good questions. The thing with Europe is that I don't think a lot of the inter-city fares by the high speed trains are all that much cheeper then the airfares to that city. I think many people in Europe use them to bypass the hastle of the airports, the centrality of the stations, and the comfort of the service.

If you could get speed up to 200 mph though you are effectivley cutting down the time to half what it would be for flights. And if you take into account the hastle of airports then high speed rail would be faster on many routes.

Another thing working in Europes favor that we have to struggle with is that people don't need a car to visit where they want once they get to their destination in Europe. If you are in Detroit, Milwaukee, St.Louis and even in some cases in Chicago if you want to go visit many places a car is a luxary that at times you need. We would also have to improve some of the public transport in all the major cities to be served to some degree if it were to work I think.


High speed rail is the crown of a system, not the foundation. Here in Japan, the high speed rail system is complemented by outstanding networks of regional and urban rail, buses and pedestrian transport systems. The same cannot be said outside of the largest US cities, like Chicago. High speed rail is also not profitable here in Japan, outside of the line between Tokyo and Osaka, which is, by the way, not well served by air. Airports in Japan are much fewer compared to the US, and are much less convenient to the central city (for example, Narita, Chubu and Kansai are all at least 40 minutes from the center of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, respectively). High speed rail must be part of much more integrated urban transport networks, so that someone going from Indy to Chicago, for example, would be able to take a bus or local train to the high speed station, and do the same at the other end of their journey. Only then will the system really work.